Zephaniah 1:5

1:5 I will remove ¹  those who worship the stars in the sky from their rooftops, ² 

those who swear allegiance to the Lord ³  while taking oaths in the name of ⁴  their ‘king,’ ⁵ 

Zephaniah 1:16

1:16 a day of trumpet blasts ⁶  and battle cries. ⁷ 

Judgment will fall on ⁸  the fortified cities and the high corner towers.

Zephaniah 2:10

2:10 This is how they will be repaid for their arrogance, ⁹ 

for they taunted and verbally harassed ¹⁰  the people of the Lord who commands armies.

[1:5]  ¹ tn The words “I will remove” are repeated from v. 4b for stylistic reasons. In the Hebrew text vv. 4b-6 contain a long list of objects for the verb “I will remove” in v. 4b. In the present translation a new sentence was begun at the beginning of v. 5 in keeping with the tendency of contemporary English to use shorter sentences.

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “those who worship on their roofs the host of heaven.” The “host of heaven” included the sun, moon, planets, and stars, all of which were deified in the ancient Near East.

[1:5]  ³ tc The MT reads, “those who worship, those who swear allegiance to the Lord.” The original form of the LXX omits the phrase “those who worship”; it may have been accidentally repeated from the preceding line. J. J. M. Roberts prefers to delete as secondary the phrase “those who swear allegiance” (J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah [OTL], 168).

[1:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “those who swear by.”

[1:5]  ⁵ tn The referent of “their king” is unclear. It may refer sarcastically to a pagan god (perhaps Baal) worshiped by the people. Some English versions (cf. NEB, NASB, NRSV) prefer to emend the text to “Milcom,” the name of an Ammonite god (following some LXX mss, Syriac, and Vulgate) or “Molech,” a god to whom the Israelites offered their children (cf. NIV, NLT). For a discussion of the options, see Adele Berlin, Zephaniah (AB 25A), 75-77.

[1:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “a ram’s horn.” By metonymy the Hebrew text mentions the trumpet (“ram’s horn”) in place of the sound it produces (“trumpet blasts”).

[1:16]  ⁷ sn This description of the day of the Lord consists of an initial reference to anger, followed by four pairs of synonyms. The joining of synonyms in this way emphasizes the degree of the characteristic being described. The first two pairs focus on the distress and ruin that judgment will bring; the second two pairs picture this day of judgment as being very dark (darkness) and exceedingly overcast (gloom). The description concludes with the pairing of two familiar battle sounds, the blast on the ram’s horn (trumpet blasts) and the war cries of the warriors (battle cries).

[1:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “against.” The words “judgment will fall” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “this is for them in place of their arrogance.”

[2:10]  ¹² tn Heb “made great [their mouth?] against” (cf. the last phrase of v. 8).